Finance Minister shed light on economic relief measures

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On April 1, Minister of Finance Ch.Khurelbaatar hosted a press conference to make a detailed clarification on the government economic measures to mitigate the economic downturn and protect those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

At yesterday’s meeting, the cabinet decided to submit the bills on the package measures to urgent parliament discussion. The measures include exemptions of social insurance contributions and corporate tax of private companies and entities as well as personal income tax for their employees, monthly incentives for employees of entities affected by the pandemic-related restrictions, low interest loans to cashmere companies, additional child benefit allowances and reduction in fuel price.

The exemption of social insurance contributions for 6 months applies to a total of 526,000 insured employees, and the corporate tax relief will benefit 105,000 entities, said the Finance Minister. “All entities are waived from penalties and fees levied on non-payment or late-filing of social insurance contributions and all types of taxes throughout the period of heightened state of alert.” said Khurelbaatar. The government will also submit a bill on customs duty and VAT exemptions on coronavirus test kits and medical supplies.

Minister Khurelbaatar informed that around 860,000 tax payers will be receiving VAT refunds for their purchases made in the first quarter of 2020 and 2,511,000 individuals and 486 entities will be receiving dividends of shares of the Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi.

He further emphasized that the government organizations have suspended all non-essential expenditures and costs since February 19, such as foreign and domestic business travels, conferences and procurements of unimportant goods and services.

The Minister again assured that no budget revisions will be made and investments from the public budget will not be cut to avoid leading to job losses. MNT 5.1 trillion, the total cost of the package of measures to support the economy will be made available both from foreign sources and state budget funds despite the fact that the state revenue for the first three quarters of 2020 is falling MNT 97.8 billion short of projections.